Can Ros and Grady move
on from the past, or will their pain drive them apart? Six years ago,
the Balfours lost their son to a hit-and-run driver. A few months
ago, Ros discovered Grady's affair. With their marriage fast
disintegrating, they decide to take a three-month camping trip into the
heart of Australia to try and mend deep wounds and rekindle the fire
that once fused them close. This trip will decide the fate of their
relationship: do they have enough strength and enough love left to
accept what life has put them both through? But trust and forgiveness
don't come easily, and Ros and Grady have to navigate not only the
wilderness of the Outback and the challenges of other travellers, but
also the chasm of grief and bitterness they have sunk into over the last
six years. Their only hope for survival lies in facing the secrets they
have both tried to keep buried ...

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Outback Promise by Maggie Bolitho

Marriage is give and take, love and loss, joy and sorrow. For Ros and Grady, the past six years have been a living nightmare after the death of their only child. As their marriage crumbled, their grief became a twisted wall of concertina wire between them; to touch it could be to slice old wounds open. When infidelity is added to the mix, their inner turmoil erupts with a volcanic force that they both struggled to contain. Lies, deceit, guilt and a supreme failure to communicate become a festering wound neither knows how to heal. In a last ditch effort to revive their dying relationship, they embark on a three month camping trip to the heart of Australia that will lay bare every buried secret, sorrow, accusation and sin. Will they be able to rebuild what was lost or will they find it is time to move on, separately in order to re-enter the world of the living?Outback Promise by Maggie Bolitho is a heart-wrenching and dramatic tale of loss as two people realize they are destroying the bond that brought them together out of guilt, anger and hurt. Will having only each other to rely on, in a world foreign to their urban existence give them the strength to finally be honest and accept that bad things happen, but what a person does with the memories is the key to re-enforcing the vows they took so long ago.Ms. Bolitho has created an often dark and painful story, seen through the heart of Ros as she struggles with her own issues, her husband’s distance and the things she can never have again. Meet two people damaged by life as they forsake their life partner out of need and sense of loss. Extremely well-written, even-paced this is a story to savor. There is no rapid-fire action, no over-the-top heroics, just two characters who have been flayed open, looking for healing by stripping away all of their familiar trappings and conveniences, forcing them to get back to basics in more ways than one. Powerful, insightful and brutally realistic, life holds no promises for a happily ever after, but happiness and acceptance must come from within. Highly recommended, character-driven reading.

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Also by Maggie Bolitho

Lockdown

When disaster strikes, where do you turn?Rowan
Morgan thinks she’s ready for the rare great earthquake that devastates
the Pacific Northwest but she quickly finds out there is more to
emergency preparation than stockpiling food. Disasters change people,
make them anxious. Anxious people make bad decisions, take silly risks. At
their father’s insistence Rowan and her brother have taken first aid
courses, learned to fish and hunt, and know to close ranks around the
family in emergencies. When she has to put that training into practice,
Rowan discovers many situations are not covered in survival manuals.

A free range child, I grew on
an island in Canada’s Pacific Northwest. I spent my formative years
flying under the radar, building alternative universes, and wishing for
20/20 vision.

Shortly after my 17th birthday I set out to see the
world, or at least large parts of Canada. I lived in four of Canada’s
major cities before eventually moving to Australia. While living Down
Under, I started writing fiction and explored the outback.

I now divide my time between Victoria and Salt Spring Island, often dreaming of Australia's golden sands and blue skies.

November 2015 my adult novel, Outback Promise, was released by HarperCollins Australia.

In 2014 my debut novel, Lockdown, was released by Great Plains Teen Fiction.

Some
of my adult short stories have been published in different anthologies
in Australia, the US, and Canada. My poetry has been published in Quills
Canadian Poetry magazine.